Tony Stark might once have been nothing more than an arrogant billionaire playboy.
But after Afghanistan, after building the first Iron Man suit in a cave with scraps and desperation, he learned what responsibility actually ant.
He knew exactly what he should do.
The difference was that Tony lived honestly with his own desires.
What he wanted.
What he hated.
What he could do.
What he refused to do.
No matter how reckless he looked from the outside, Tony Stark understood himself better than most people ever would.
"Yeah, yeah, shut up," Tony muttered irritably. "I'll handle it."
He refused to admit defeat.
If the problem was vision, then he'd just force himself to think bigger.
Far bigger.
Out over the ocean, the Helicarrier and its deployed Decepticon units continued bombarding the approaching Scythehead Kaiju with everything they had.
Heavy artillery.
Missiles.
Energy cannons.
Nothing worked.
Even their highest-yield weapons failed to properly penetrate the monster's defenses.
If soone converted the damage into a ga-style health bar, the entire assault would probably look like an endless stream of floating damage numbers reading:
[-1]
Forced chip damage.
anwhile the Kaiju's regeneration would be ticking at sothing ridiculous like:
[ 10000 HP/sec]
Eventually, the Decepticons disengaged.
The units closest to the Kaiju retreated toward the coastal city while only five remained circling the monster at a distance.
Compared to the Axehead Kaiju that had already been vaporized, Scythehead honestly looked far more intimidating.
Its crescent-shaped skull resembled a massive bladed scythe.
Rows of shark-like fins jutted from its back.
Its forearms weren't really hands at all, more like gigantic blunt cleavers built for crushing ships apart.
Unlike Axehead, which had died almost imdiately, Scythehead had actually been one of the more dangerous Kaiju in Pacific Rim lore.
In the original film tiline, it had nearly destroyed Gipsy Danger.
Tony hovered above the coastline, sorting through combat playlists while studying the creature below.
"JARVIS, prioritize combat data collection," he ordered. "Find the weakest point in its armor."
"Understood, sir."
Tony ascended higher.
The reactor in his chest blazed brighter.
Then the V-shaped emitter on the armor fired.
A concentrated beam of energy slamd directly into Scythehead's skull.
The Kaiju roared loud enough to shake the clouds.
Smoke and seawater exploded outward.
But when the haze cleared, Tony saw exactly what he expected.
The attack hadn't fully penetrated.
"Thought so," Tony muttered.
Only next-generation weapons could hurt this thing.
"JARVIS, prepare combat protocol."
"And turn the battle music on."
Several nearby heroes imdiately looked at him like he'd lost his mind.
General Ross spat his cigar aside.
Then charged forward.
Red Hulk launched himself at Scythehead and drove a punch into its leg.
The result was deeply disappointing.
A multi-thousand-ton Kaiju was not sothing Red Hulk could casually overpower.
Scythehead simply lifted one foot and stomped him into the ground.
Around the battlefield, the other heroes were beginning to realize the sa thing.
Most of their powers were built for human-scale combat.
Enhanced strength.
Mutations.
Martial skill.
None of it mattered much against a living mountain.
T'Challa, now officially working with S.W.O.R.D., discovered that his vibranium claws could pierce the Kaiju's armor.
Unfortunately, the claws were asured in centiters.
The Kaiju was asured in stories.
Atlantean energy weapons perford slightly better.
Blue blood burst from the creature's body as several blasts finally penetrated its outer hide.
The mont the blood hit seawater, glowing blue contamination rapidly spread through the surrounding shallows.
"Damn it!" soone shouted over comms. "We should've waited until it fully reached land before firing!"
Kaiju blood was catastrophically toxic to Earth's ecosystem.
Even diluted in seawater, it remained dangerously persistent.
The attack had only broken the creature's skin, but the surrounding coastal waters were already effectively poisoned.
"No one on Earth has real experience fighting sothing this large," another voice said grimly. "Even the Dragon-Level Centipede monster wasn't anywhere near this size."
"No," another corrected imdiately. "We don't have experience."
A pause.
"Drex Valen already prepared for this."
All they needed to do was survive until the next orbital strike.
At this point, both the heroes and S.W.O.R.D. personnel had already heard about Drex's weapon from Tony Stark.
And honestly?
Nobody even knew what to say anymore.
Drex Valen's foresight bordered on terrifying.
Inside the Helicarrier command center, Nick Fury stared at the battlefield footage with a deepening frown.
Governnts around the world were already losing their minds.
No one had expected Drex to quietly place a weapon like this in orbit above the planet.
Back in Japan, the previous shot from the Sword of Damocles hadn't rely erased Axehead.
It had punched nearly a kiloter into the Earth's crust.
Sections of the surrounding region were currently experiencing seismic instability, structural collapse, and aftershock tremors.
The na Sword of Damocles suddenly felt painfully appropriate.
So world leaders were even convinced Drex had chosen the na intentionally.
A reminder.
A warning hanging over everyone's heads.
"How long until the cannon is operational again?" Fury asked sharply.
Maria Hill answered imdiately.
"Thirty minutes. They're replacing the firing barrel."
Fury nodded once.
"Then everybody stalls for thirty minutes."
Back on the battlefield, another massive explosion shook the coastline.
The ground trembled hard enough that nearby cities felt the shockwave.
Windows shattered across entire districts.
Cracks spread through reinforced concrete buildings.
Near the epicenter, a massive crater over a hundred ters wide tore through the urban coastline.
Kaiju flesh and blue blood splattered across the area like toxic paint.
Seawater rushed inward, carrying contaminated blood back into the ocean.
Ironically, the explosion hadn't even co from a special weapon.
During the battle, soone had accidentally ruptured an underground natural gas line.
The resulting detonation looked spectacular.
In reality?
It barely mattered.
Scythehead erged from the flas and smoke almost completely unhard.
Blue biological fluids burned across its body, producing thick toxic smoke that spread into the atmosphere.
Tony frowned as environntal readings flooded across his HUD.
These monsters weren't just hard to kill.
They were walking ecological disasters.
Even if humanity managed to bring one down conventionally, disposing of the corpse afterward would beco another nightmare entirely.
Thankfully, Drex Valen's orbital cannon solved that problem rather elegantly.
There wasn't much pollution left when the target got vaporized at the molecular level.
Then every hero on the battlefield received the sa warning.
Clear the area imdiately.
The Sword of Damocles was ready to fire again.
This ti, Drex had replaced the cannon barrel with a vibranium-lined version to prevent overheating.
Then the sky turned red.
A beam of death descended from orbit at a speed Scythehead couldn't possibly evade.
The Kaiju was struck head-on.
Every hero watching froze in shock.
Even General Ross, a man absurdly proud of his own power, stared in stunned silence.
If he got hit by sothing like that...
He'd die too.
Scythehead scread.
Then disintegrated into ash.
This ti the energy output had been adjusted far more precisely.
After erasing the Kaiju completely, the beam only drilled around ten ters into the ground before dissipating.
Compared to the previous shot?
That counted as restraint.
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